Our home is one of the few in our neighbourhood where fall leaf clean up happens the old fashioned way: with a rake, sweat, and lots of patience. “Patience,” you ask? Why patience? Have you ever tried to herd cats? Getting dry leaves into a yard waste bag is a little like that.
Choosing to do our leaf clean up quietly is a conscious decision. I know that we could get out the leaf blower and have everything into bags lickety split quick. But I simply don’t want to do that. The leaf blower is noisy. It disturbs the entire neighbourhood. And it disturbs me.
For me, taking two hours with my rake and our leaves is a little piece of heaven. Today, it was extra glorious because it was sunny and warm, both huge treats on the west coast of BC in November. And AH is away, so it was just me out in the yard, raking and enjoying a quiet afternoon in our neighbourhood.
What did my mind do while I raked? Absolutely nothing. My brain went on vacation, and I focused myself wholeheartedly on the task at hand. You should try it sometime! When you’re busy moving leaves into a neat and tidy pile, there’s nothing at all to contemplate other than getting those leaves ready to be bagged up.
Something else happens while you’re quietly raking and bagging leaves: people stop and talk to you! They tell you that they’re thankful you’re not using a leaf blower. You catch up on what’s happening with their kids. You talk about something amazing that happened in their life this week. I was struck by the realization that I hadn’t talked to this many people on our street since we had our last big snow in February when we were all out shovelling our driveways. I was so thankful for the opportunity to connect and be social with our neighbours.
One other thing to consider: those leaves have done some beautiful work for us. They’ve been gorgeous and lush and green since the first leaf buds appeared back in March. For nearly eight months, those green gems have given us a huge sense of nature and being nurtured as we’ve looked out our front window. They’ve shaded us from the fierce morning sun all summer long. They’ve provided us with much-needed breezes on warm summer days. And now, in the fall, a symphony of colour has appeared in those beautiful maples as the leaves change from green to yellow to orange, and then finally red. Those gifts from our leaves have earned some sacred time invested in their clean up, in my opinion.
At the end of the afternoon I had eight full bags, three blisters, and really dirty hands. I also had a huge smile on my face, and a deep sense of gratitude for having taken the afternoon with our leaves. I will miss them! And I’m thankful to have spent this time with them as we say farewell for another season.
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